GTS Mileage Advice

[pigcorn]

Looking at 96\97 GTS and it appears that if the car is under 10k miles is about $10k more than the same car with around 20k miles.

I plan on driving about 800 miles a year, I am not buying for investment, just for fun. A price of around $42k is attractive for a 22k miles GTS vs 52k for an 9k mile car.

Am I being short sighted in my way thinking? Do cars with 10,000+ extra miles have a lot more problems?

Should I just go with the high mileage car?

 

[splochocki]

If your purchasing to drive the take on the extra 10K miles to save the money.

If the car was well maintained 10K won't mean anything.

Why only 800 miles per year?

 

[PAvenomRT/10]

I get a kick out of people who think 20K is high mileage. Mileage may be critical for a strictly collector car, but if you are going to drive it and enjoy it the extra 10K in mileage seems minimal assuming the car has been well-maintained. When i bought my Viper, it already had 17K on it after 4 years. I considered that low mileage until i started hearing about cars that were 10 years old that had less than 10K on them. My advice is to get the higher mileage car everything else being equal and spend the extra 10K on modifying to your liking. Just my humble opinion.
Pavenom RT/10

 

[jay01m]

I bought my 97 GTS with 28k miles on it, payed $38k, and it has zero mechanical problems. The only thing I need to do is replace the engine and tranny mounts, which I would have had to do anyways on a 10k mile car.

I wouldn't waste your money on a low mile Viper unless you're going to garage it.

 

[plumcrazy]

dont worry about miles. worry about how well its maintained and the overall shape of it

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

20k miles wouldn't scare me. It's how the car was driven that I would be most concerned with.

 

[George Farris]

I plan on driving about 800 miles a year ... just for fun.

Unless you are just going back and forth to *******, you need to drive it more than 800miles/year to have real fun.

IMO

 

[SoCal Rebell]

20k miles wouldn't scare me. It's how the car was driven that I would be most concerned with.

What Chuck said, personally I think you shouldn't get one if that's your concern.

 

[slaughterj]

Get the higher mile one, it probably got driven enough to have less problems. Otherwise you are talking about a 12 year old car with less than a 1000 miles a year, makes me wonder if it doesn't have issues from sitting too much.

 

[viperdude118]

I plan on driving about 800 miles a year, I am not buying for investment, just for fun. quote]

For the money it costs to buy a viper a lot more fun would be had doing other things than only driving 800 miles per year. In fact if this were truly your intention, it'd be financially better to rent a viper when you wanted to drive one and use the extra money on lottery tickets

I honestly though this thread was gonna be "How come my viper only gets 12 mpg?"

 

[Kmrumedy]

I just bought my 97 GTS with 22,000 miles in May for about $15K less than the 10,000 mile car people were asking for their vehicles.

I also said I would drive only about 800 - 1000 miles per year becuase of the climate.

I have been driving it for 5 weeks on weekends only and already put on 1400 miles!! I get in it, stupid grin appears, and 6 - 8 hours just fly by!!!

I'm with the others, get the higher mileage car and TRY to drive it just 800 miles.....no way.........you'll pass that mark easily!

let us know what you get and post some pictures!! welcome.

 

[kcobean]

I agree with all the folks that say go with the high(er) mileage car. Driving a Viper is a helluva lot of fun and nothing would ruin it more than watching the odometer tick off the miles and feeling guilty because of it.

Remember that this essentially is a truck engine and that many of the other parts of the car came out of other Chrysler vehicles. The Viper is not an exotic.

 

[agentf1]

I noticed this when I was looking. The cars seem to drop about a dollar a mile once they get over 10,000 miles on them to a certian point and they they kinda level out usually at about the 42 mark. I figured I probably would not have much time to put a lot of miles on my car so bought one with low miles (985) figuring it would hold its value for a while and if I wanted to sell it down the road I could get most my money back. I almost wish I got a high mile one that already took the brunt of its depreciation since they are so much fun to drive. Either way I would probably have recouped most my cash when I go to sell. That said, I didn't buy it for a investment so even if and when I do go over that magical 10,000 mile mark I am sure it won't have depreciated nearly as much as if I bought a new Vette or something similar. Point being just buy whichever one you like the best and enjoy it. You only live once.

 

[pigcorn]

Thanks for the advice. I think 800 miles will be on the low end, but my reason is that I live in NYC and would have to garage the viper outside the city so I would only take it out on nice days in the summer\fall\spring. I have another car I use that is in the city and I put about 2500 miles a year on it but it fits my whole family.

Who knows maybe I would find myself driving it more but I would say no more than 2000 miles a year.

I know some of you might think why get a viper at all, but you can't talk me out of it, I have wanted one for over 10 years.

 

[viperdude118]

Thanks for the advice. I think 800 miles will be on the low end, but my reason is that I live in NYC and would have to garage the viper outside the city so I would only take it out on nice days in the summer\fall\spring. I have another car I use that is in the city and I put about 2500 miles a year on it but it fits my whole family.

Who knows maybe I would find myself driving it more but I would say no more than 2000 miles a year.

I know some of you might think why get a viper at all, but you can't talk me out of it, I have wanted one for over 10 years.

Didn't mean to make it sound like you shouldn't get one, by all means get one! This is the best car ever built

But just don't plan on seriously being able to keep the miles less than 800 per year. I put on 6000 miles on mine last year and I thought that was minimal, I wish I had driven it more but just don't have the time.

If you are able to keep miles less than 800 that is some serious self control my friend.

 

[CROM]

Asking price is not always the selling price. The owner of that 48-52k car you are drooling over with under 7500 miles might be quite ready to move on a 43-45k offer.

Most of these cars sit for a long time.......sellers are usually more than ready to dump them. And the Viper market has been very weak the past 2 years.

 

[Purdue_Boiler_Viper]

Lots of good advice here already. I'll add the following.

Get the car you really want, i.e. color, GTS, etc. Shop around to find it.
Get the car inspected by someone who knows Vipers, and buy only one that has been well maintained and cared for.
Get a Race Yellow one if you want the fastest one.

 

[Obsidian]

I have heard that more miles is actually BETTER than less (to a point). Since a car with low miles may have fluids sitting for long times, stale gas, and many short runs (frequent on and offs).

I got my Gen II 2001 with 24K miles on it last year. It has been driving like butter, no problems (knock on wood).

 

[Ratical2]

I have to chime in with the rest of them...if you are buying to drive save yourself the $10K and go with the higher mileage. Pay the money to have the car inspected. It took me three months to find this car and I was amazed at some peoples definition of "perfect" condition. I bought a 96 GTS with 15K miles in March. I expected to only put 6k miles a year on it. The first week I had the car, after a trip to southern California, a track day and a nice drive back up Highway 1, I had put over 1K miles on the odometer. Now 3 months later I am 50 miles short of the 20K mark. The car is a blast to drive and you just hate leaving it at home... I can hear it calling me even now....

 

[DodgeViper01]

These cars have very few problems. The are easy to fix and mileage does not seem to carry many problems. I have almost 45,000 one owner miles, and it has been fun KNOCK ON WOOD. Good luck with your search!!

 

[Craig 201 MPH]

800 miles a year? Might as well just rent one.

 

[viperdude118]

800 miles a year? Might as well just rent one.

Kopy Kat